Eve

In his work, the biblical Eve is portrayed with Satan [as a serpent] beneath the tree of knowledge. This painting has been heavily copied from Henry Fuseli’s ‘Satan’s First Address to Eve’ (c.1802). However, in this interpretation, Eve is no longer portrayed as a passive bystander, but rather, as a captive prisoner in the grip of sketched human arms resembling that of the larger-than-life marble sculpture, Bernini’s Pluto in ‘The Rape of Proserpina [the Roman goddess of harvest and fertility] (1621).’ Satan, himself is depicted as a large phallus, referencing the potential desires of man at the expense of the sacred feminine and nature.